The cash-strapped and over staffed Sri Lanka Central Transport Board (SLCTB) plans to lay off at least 12,000 workers and lease some of its lands to raise Rs. 11 billion to pay EPF and ETF dues to it workers, Transport Ministry Secretary Nihal Somaweera said. He said the current workforce was around 36,000 and this [...]

Plans to turn around SLCTB, 12,000 layoffs, depot lands to be leased

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The cash-strapped and over staffed Sri Lanka Central Transport Board (SLCTB) plans to lay off at least 12,000 workers and lease some of its lands to raise Rs. 11 billion to pay EPF and ETF dues to it workers, Transport Ministry Secretary Nihal Somaweera said.

He said the current workforce was around 36,000 and this would be reduced to around 24,000 under a restructuring programme. “We want to turn the SLCTB into a profit-making institution and it will begin with the reduction of the staff,” he said. The Secretary said a compensation package was being worked out for the staff under a voluntary retirement scheme but this would not include drivers, conductors and mechanics.

Mr. Somaweera said that since the SLCTB was a Board, there was no provision for staff to be transferred to other state organisations and a voluntary retirement scheme was the only way out.He said that for nearly a decade, the employees had not been paid their EPF and ETF dues and this had led to the arrears accumulating to more than Rs.11 billion.

“There are thousands of acres of land where 120 SLCTB depots are located. Many of them are neglected and have fallen into disrepair even though the locations of some of these lands make them valuable in terms of today’s market prices,” he said. The plan would include reducing the number of depots to 70. Under the Ministry of Finance, a company would be set up to lease out the land and the money from this would be used to pay the EPF and ETF dues.

He added that the annual expenditure of the Ministry to maintain certain services such as season tickets and bus services to remote areas was around Rs. 11 billion but so far the ministry had only received Rs 7 billion from the Treasury. The ministry was having talks with the Treasury to get the rest of the money. Otherwise, the ministry might have to reduce some of these services to the people.